Tag Archives: Railways

High Speed 2 (HS2) update number 3.

25 Wednesday Nov 2020

Posted by in Hs2

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My last update was back on October 7th, so as so much has been happening recently I though it time for update No 3. Here’s a (by no means exhaustive) round up of news from the past 6 weeks.

On the 7th October HS2 Ltd signed the contract for the first 2 of the Tunnel Boring Machines that will be boring beneath Greater London. These tunnels will be twin bored. At 13 miles each way, and with a combined total of 26 miles, HS2’s London tunnel’s will be the same length as Crossrail.

These machines are part of a package of 10 TBMs purchased to construct the 64 miles of tunnelling along the HS2 route between the West Midlands and London.

The (TBMs) are being built by world leading manufacturer Herrenknecht and will be delivered to the site in the UK by the end of 2021. They’re being designed and manufactured specifically for the London clay and chalk ground conditions they’ll be used in.

These first two London TBMs will be launched from a portal at West Ruislip and will travel 5 miles east, creating the western section of the  Northolt Tunnel. Once they arrive at Green Park Way in Greenford the machines will be extracted from the ground and the site will then be used as a vent shaft. The 8.4 mile tunnel will be completed with a 3.4 mile tunnel drive from Old Oak Common using two further TBMs which are yet to be procured. A second tunnel between Euston and Old Oak Common will complete the remaining 4.5 miles of London tunnel between the two HS2 stations. 

Once the first new TBMs have been built, they will be transported by sea before being delivered to site at the end of 2021. Once assembled, they will begin the tunnel drive from mid 2022, until completion at the beginning of 2024.

Construction London Tunnel Maps

On the 14th October details of a 5 year study into geology along the HS2 route was announced in a partnership with Bath University and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) in a major study of the geology beneath the first phase of Britain’s new high speed railway between the West Midlands and London.  You can read the full details here.

A few days later on the 19th October the designs for the HS2 viaducts at Edgcote (515m long) and Lower Thorpe (210m long) in Northamptonshire were unveiled, along with details of major new wildlife sites and environmental mitigation that will be created. Full detail are here.

An artists impression of the new Edgecote viaduct. (Copyright HS2 Ltd).

Over the weekend of the 24-25th October another engineering milestone was celebrated when a 45 metre, 914 tonne modular bridge was moved into place over the M42 motorway in just 45 minutes! Just like last time, the motorway reopened 24 hours ahead of schedule. More here.

On the 27th October HS2 revealed updated designs for the Canterbury Works vent shaft headhouse and compound, in South Kilburn, London. It will be one of four structures that will be built to provide ventilation and emergency access to the high speed rail line for the 4.5mile long Euston Tunnel between Euston and Old Oak Common. More Here.

Design for the Canterbury Works headhouse and compound. The Canterbury Works site is located in South Kilburn, behind Canterbury Road and Canterbury Terrace and next to the existing railway tracks. Picture Copyright HS2 Ltd.

Just 3 days later, the final design for the Little Missenden vent shaft headhouse was revealed. This will provide ventilation and emergency access to the high-speed railway’s 10 mile-long Chilterns tunnel below. The headhouse is one of four that will be built above a vent shafts leading down to the high speed rail tunnel and is similar in style to the HS2 headhouse at Chalfont St Peter announced earlier this year. More here.

The pace of announcements in November didn’t slack off. There was a slew of news on virtual Meet the Contractor events, substantial grants to community funds and innovative robot technology for the TBMs as well as gold awards for sustainability.

Then, on the 23rd November, the 4 day virtual ‘Meet the contractor’ event went live, with around £12bn worth of contract opportunities. Needless to say, there’s been a lot of interest. You can find out more here.  

On the same day HS2 issued an invitation to tender to five bidders in the running to design, deliver and maintain almost 300 state-of-the-art lifts and escalators for HS2’s four major new stations. The contract is divided into two separate packages for lifts worth up to £267m and escalators worth up to £198m. Shortlisted bidders are;

  • Fujitec UK Ltd
  • Kone Plc
  • Otis Ltd
  • Schindler Ltd
  • Thyssenkrupp Elevator UK Ltd

There’s more details here.

The political front hasn’t been forgotten either. Yesterday the Government published a statement of reasons command paper for the High-Speed Rail (West Midlands to Crewe) Bill. The command paper is titled the ‘Government overview of the case for HS2 Phase 2a and its environmental impacts – Update for the House of Lords’. This is required by Parliamentary Standing Order 83A(9) to assist the House during the third reading of the High-Speed Rail (West Midlands to Crewe) Bill. This document summarises the work that has already been done to assess, control and mitigate the environmental impacts of HS2 Phase 2a, and explains why the government continues to take the view that the HS2 Phase 2a project is worthy of its support.

The 24th was also the day HS2 Ltd invited contractors to bid for first major civils work north of the West Midlands, on the phase 2a route to Crewe. Known as ‘Early Civils Work – Package 2’ (ECW2), the new £50m programme includes a range of enabling works designed to reduce disruption during the main build stage of the project. This includes major highways works and associated utility diversions as well as a range of environmental and other surveys along the 58km route. In a separate deal was a detailed programme of ground investigation along the 2a route, with Hs2 confirming that the latest package – worth £25-30m – has been awarded to Balfour Beatty. More here.

Last on the list is today’s announcement that HS2 and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) have agreed to work together to deliver the utility diversions required to enable the planned Birmingham Eastside extension to serve the new HS2 Curzon Street Station on its proposed route to Digbeth. Details here.

Phew! I really do need to do these updates more often! As you can see, there’s a huge amount going on at the moment – and that’s without other work on the ground, such as the continued arrival of the Chiltern Tunnel Boring machines from Germany, whose components continue to be shipped in and moved to sites on the Phase 1 route.

There’s also utilities work still happening, with National Power having successfully installed a bridge at Denham (despite the actions of the tiny protest camp in the area) ready to begin installing the new HV pylons that will replace the old route. Away from the Chilterns and Warwickshire work is picking up the pace in Staffordshire, where clearance of trees and scrub has picked up the pace. You can find a detailed look at what’s happening up and down the HS2 route by taking a look at the excellent ‘HS2 in your area’ website.

Needless to say, the protests against HS2 have had no significant effect and are well past their peak due to a combination of factors. They never managed to attract large numbers of people and many of the real activists have rendered themselves useless by getting arrested and being subject to bail conditions/injunctions. Nowadays protests are very small scale and tend to involve one or two people climbing on to lorries before being nicked by the police and carted off to the local co-shop. The minor delays they cause to HS2 work is out of proportion to the inconvenience they cause to locals – who’re getting increasingly unhappy with what they see as a waste of everyone’s time! As protesters seem to be spending more time in court than they do trying to stop HS2 I can only see one way this is going…

Hopefully, once the latest ‘lockdown’ has eased and we know what the new rules are I’ll be able to begin bringing you bulletins from events along the route. In the meantime, I’ll do another update in December. Watch this space…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Rolling blog: Earning ‘Lockdown’ lucre…

24 Tuesday Nov 2020

Posted by in New trains, Northern Rail, Photography, Rolling blogs

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07:00

Ugh! I’d almost forget what it’s like to have the alarm set for before sparrowfart. Those nights where you know it’s going to go off at 05:30 and you have fitful sleep because you keep waking up in anticipation. I don’t miss mornings like that – especially this time of year, although today’s started off mild – and dry. The walk down the hill to Sowerby Bridge station was rather pleasent until I got into the town itself. Compared to ‘Lockdown 1’ there’s far more people out and about (me included) so the roads were busy.

I’m currently waiting for the 07:00 to Wigan Wallgate via Manchester. Having left Leeds on time its dropped several minutes already and isn’t expected to arrive until 07:12. Thankfully, I have plenty of time to make my connection in Manchester, so as long as it doesn’t lose any more time…

A York service has just departed with the 3-car carrying just a handful of passengers and there’s only half a dozen of us waiting for the 07:00.

07:20.

I’m on my way, 11 mins late – and no idea why! One of Northern’s 3-car Class 158s (displaced from top-link duties by the new Class 195s) crept into the station to take us to Manchester. After leaving Hebden Bridge there’s now a grand total of 6 of us in the leading car…

07:50.

We’re now speeding towards Manchester after calling at Rochdale. I’ve counted two dozen in our car now, hardly pre-Covid levels but an improvement on the last lockdown.

09:00.

I’m now on the 08:47 Manchester Oxford Rd – Liverpool Line St after walking across a pretty much deserted city centre from Victoria. It’s eerie seeing what’s normally such a thriving place so quiet. This time of morning you expect to see people streaming into work but the only things open that I could see were food outlets – all vieing for what little trade there is. Walking up the ramp to an equally deserted Oxford Rd station was a first! Normally I’d be ducking and diving though the commuters flooding off the station!

The train I’m on is equally quite, although a few dozen did alight when it arrived. Its made up of a 150/156 combo, so there’s no guessing which I chose. It’s refurbished set so we even have the luxury of USB sockets at our tables. I count 3 of us in the whole car…

09:21.

We’re just passing the quiet bulk of Fidlers Ferry power station and it’s almost time for me to get to work. I’ll see If I can post a picture or two from what I’m up to later…

Back when I’m free…

15:00.

Well, that was an interesting few hours work with a film crew PR company and the staff of a major train building firm at their plant in Widnes. There’s a clue in the picture.

I’m beginning to build up a range of masks that’s rivalling my collection of high-vis vests..

Alstom’s Widnes plant is a busy place at the moment. Yesterday, an off-lease Class 321 arrived for experimental conversion to a ‘Breeze’, Hydrogen powered train. 321437 has lost its trailer car (which has gone for scrap) but the remaining 3 cars will be used as a test bed for a potential fleet conversion.

Another part of the plant is busy with the internal and external refurbishment of Transport for Wales Class 175 DMUs (Alstom Coradias, built in the first batch of new trains after privatisation). Two sets were receiving attention whilst I was there. Meanwhile, the plant continues to grow, with new facilities in place ready for the start of the internal refurbishment of the Avanti West Coast which will start in 2021.

21:00.

I’m home and it’s time to bring today’s events to a close. Getting back to work in the thick of an industry that’s kept going throughout the pandemic as it has such a vital role to play’s been really enjoyable. Hopefully, normality will continue to resume now that we’re looking to coming out of the latest restrictions and several vaccines are on the horizon.

Travelling back through Manchester and a city centre where so much is inactive due to Covid makes me realise that normality can’t return soon enough – although I don’t think everything will return to the way it was before. If nothing else, 2020 has given many people pause for thought.

I did grab a few more pictures on my journey home as I stopped off on the way a couple of times, but most of those shots will be saved for other times and other blogs. As it was dark by the time I was walking across from Oxford Rd to Victoria I thought I’d have a play, so there is this shot…

In contrast to many other trains I’d been on today, the 16:58 I caught from Manchester Victoria back across the Pennines was straining at the edges of overcrowding as protocols stand right now. Life is returning and once vaccines are rolled out I’ve little doubt passenger numbers will ramp up rapidly. Will they ever return to pre-Covid norms. I have a view on that, but that’s shared (along with the reasons for it) in Part 3 of my round Britain Trip for RAIL magazine which will hit the newsagents on December 2nd, so I’ll refrain from saying more until then!

Tomorrow I’m back to working from home as I’ve a shedload of new pictures to edit and other work to catch up on. But I hope it won’t be too long before I’m out and about again…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

The truth about the ‘desecration’ of a children’s memorial by HS2…

21 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by in Fake News, Hs2, Railways

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There’s an old saying that ‘a lie is halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on’ – and this is never truer than when it comes to stories planted in the media by opponents of the HS2 high-speed railway that’s currently under construction.

Here’s the latest example, which is a tale about a memorial woodland outside Wendover in Buckinghamshire.

The story was planted by a young lady from East Devon, one Beth Mahoney. Here it is;

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Needless to say, it soon got picked up elsewhere and amplified and exaggerated even more. Reading it, you’d think that HS2 contractors had just turned up out of the blue and bulldozed all the trees, memorials and (alleged) children’s ashes to make way for the new railway. After all, the story contains all the right elements to cause outrage in certain circles: Death, children – and trees.

One of the people who helped amplify this story and the sense of outrage was none other than ‘celebrity’ environmentalist, Chris Packham (who’s relationship with the truth is always questionable when it comes to HS2) who tweeted this.

So, what’s the truth? Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we? This is the announcement from the hospice about the establishment of the memorial wood.

Note, this is a memorial woodland. It is not (and never has been) a cemetery. No-one is interred there and if anyone has scattered ashes there, then they have done so without official sanction. Nor is it specifically about children.

Why did no-one know this work was happening, as is claimed? The truth is – they did – and they’ve known for years. Here’s a rather revealing story in the local rag, the Bucks Herald from May 2019. It’s headlined…

The end of the article carries this rather revealing response from HS2 Ltd.

So, the memorial isn’t being bulldozed at all and the hyperbole about ‘desecration’ is just that. Yes, it’s unfortunate that services have to be diverted through a small part of the memorial wood, but compared to (say) exhuming graveyards, this is on a very different scale.

Funnily enough, the Bucks Herald seems to have suffered a strange bout of amnesia about their 2019 article when they published this new one on the 19th November. It’s headline?

Notice two things. One, the old newspaper trick that – you can claim any old cobblers as long as you put it in inverted commas! Two, suddenly the memorial wood has become exclusively “a memorial site for children” The rag goes on to interview parents of a child who sadly died, who are quoted as saying “

“If HS2 needed to use the site, they could have dealt with the matter sensitively, making sure that the families of the children whose memorials were there were given the opportunity to dig up their trees and remove their memorial stones.”

Hang on a minute? How would HS2 Ltd know which families are linked to the memorial woods? It’s not a cemetery remember, and the only people who would know anything about deaths at the hospice is – the hospice. So, did the hospice know this work was going to happen? Of course they did – as is revealed here.

This is the Facebook page of the Aylesbury and District news from the 6th January. It contains this page.

Once again, note ‘those who’ve died’ Not ‘children who’ve died’ And the entry underneath is?

Out of interest I contacted HS2 Ltd about some of these claims.

They told me that they gave the landowner and the hospice a month’s notice before they took possession of the woodland (notified 17th September, possession took place on 20th October). Their understanding is that the hospice sent out correspondence to all known donors on 20th September advising of the possession and the works They also told me that the public notice published on the HS2 community website that covers the area does confirm on page two under “preparation works” that trees will be cut down.

Now, I’m not in any way casting any aspersions on the Hospice here. It seems they’re completely innocent parties in this manufactured row and mischief making by others cynically using any stick they can find (or invent) to beat HS2 with – and damn the truth!

So what is the truth? Well, it’s that a small section of the memorial wood has had to be dug up to divert utilities. Once the work is done, new trees will be planted and the memorial woodland restored. It’s unfortunate, but it’s very different to the distorted picture being painted. The fact is, 85% of the woodland is still intact, as was reveled by this local resident on Twitter.

My problem with all this – apart from the obvious lies and distortions – is the way some people are stoking up a climate of hate against HS2 and anyone who works for it. People working on HS2 construction sites already have to deal with abuse and harassment from protesters, some have even been followed back to their hotels, but accusing them of ‘desecrating’ a children’s memorial has hit a new low. How long before a poor HS2 worker is attacked by some idiot fired up by stories like this?

It’s about time some sections of the media started telling the truth – and some ‘celebrity environmentalists’ too for that matter…

UPDATE:

Since I wrote this blog, new information has come to light which (yet again) exposes the hype and hyperbole behind this story. The information comes via ‘Planet Radio’ and you can view it in this link. The headline?

The article contains a statement from Tracey Hancock, Director of Fundraising for the hospice, part of which explains this..

Rennie Grove Hospice Care and the landowner were given a month’s notice of HS2’s intention to take possession of the land on 20 October 2020. Rennie Grove wrote to every family recorded as having a tree in the woodland to let them know that the area would be out of bounds after this date. The charity has since become aware of one family who did not receive their letter and who subsequently visited the woodland to find the tree planted in memory of their daughter and a memorial stone they had also placed by it were no longer there.

A spokesperson for HS2 was also quoted, saying this;

“We informed the Hospice and the landowner a month in advance, providing them with time to notify the families and friends of the deceased who may have wanted to remove any fixed items before work started.”

Despite the truth now being out, watch the tiny bunch of protesters who still think they can stop HS2 exploit bereaved families and the Hospice for their own ends and drag this out for their own propaganda purposes. This cynical attempt to exploit the issue is being circulated on various anti HS2 Facebook pages – and during the Covid lockdown too!

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

Rolling blog: Trusting the weather forecast…

19 Thursday Nov 2020

Posted by in Railways, Rolling blogs, Travel, Yorkshire

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07:40

Well, it’s a long time since I’ve done a rolling blog! Today, despite the fact it’s cold and raining here in the Calder Valley I’m trusting in the reliability of the weather forecast and venturing out to document more modernisation of the rail network.

Over the next few weeks Network Rail is working on the section of the Harrogate loop East of Knaresborough which contains several manually operated level crossings and single track sections that are controlled by semaphore signalling and tokens. It’s a system that dates back to the early days of the railways. My mission is to record it before it disappears. So, shortly I’ll be heading off to get the train from Halifax to Leeds. Stay with me to see what happens…

08:40.

Well, that was predictable! The large lineside fire in Bradford that occurred a couple of days ago is still causing chaos with many trains either cancelled or ‘bustituted’. My 08:30 to Leeds is now a bus so I’ve opted for plan B, which will save me a couple of bob anway.

I’m now waiting for the 08:50 Bradford Interchange to Huddersfield which is starting from Halifax. A Class 150 is sat here now, burbling away merrily, although the two of us who’re waiting to catch it are out on the cold platform as the Conductor’s not here to open the doors!

This diversion will lose me an hour but it can’t be helped. I suspected I wouldn’t get all the pictures I wanted today so another trip was on the cards anyway.

08:57.

By the time we departed there was a grand total of seven passengers on the train which is now bumbling its way to Brighouse. The Conductor has already been round to check tickets, which was good to see.

09:05.

Brighouse station had just three passengers waiting. Only one boarded my train, swapping places with a chap from Halifax. Now we’re trundling along to join the Trans-Pennine main line. On (literally) the bright side, my trust in the weather forecast seems to be paying off as the earlier rain’s disappeared and blue sky’s in the ascendency!

09:55.

Funny how things work isn’t it? In one of those serendipitous moments my arrival in Huddersfield coincided with an email request for an article about a group based there! This gave me time todo a quick recce and get some useful pictures, so the delay to my day worked to my advantage. It also made up for the fact my 09:46 TPE train to Leeds was running late as the Redcar service it forms wasn’t due until 10:07. Never mind, I thought, I’ll catch the 09:49 Huddersfield – Leeds ‘stopper’. I’m sat on it now. It’s still here – as the Driver who’s due to take it forward is on a late-running Manchester – Huddersfield stopper ans won’t be here before 10:00. Fair play to our Conductor for telling us this on the PA in a world-weary but entertaining fashion! So, which goes first? Us or the Redcar Express? Watch this space…

10:05.

In the end our driver arrived in time to take us out a 09:59, ahead of the Express. As we left, our Conductor made an apologetic announcement and updated the safety message by saying “and if you see anything suspicious – like a train running on time – please contact the relevent authorities”!

11:10.

Finally, I’m on the right track – as it were – as I’m currently on the 10.59 from Leeds to Knaresborough having left Yorkshire’s premier city 90 minutes later than I’d planned. My train from Huddersfield was a lot busier than I’d expected, but still only 30-35% full. In contrast Leeds station was deserted as it’s the cities that are hardest hit by business closures and travel restrictions, as this photo shows.

Even so, work on the railway continues and the new platform 0 is really beginning to take shape. The temporary structure I used on my RAIL rover has been swept away and the line closed once more as the passenger platform is integrated as one side of a pier serving 0-1. The new steelwork for the canopy’s in place and most of the resurfacing is complete. The main focus of work now is around the bufferstop.

Right now I’m going to kick-back and enjoy the scenery from my seat on a comfortable but quiet Class 170…

12:10.

I’m enjoying a brief interlude at Knaresborough in-between trains to soak up some sunshine whilst I can. There’s a much more intensive service as far as the pretty little town, but Eastwards too York it becomes hourly. The station is still controlled by this tiny North Eastern Railway signalbox, which is starting to show its age as it’s developed a distinct lean compared to the row of houses it was built up against!

15:10.

That was an interesting few hours! I managed to get as far as my target, Hammerton and spent a very interesting hour looking at the historic railway kit and chatting to the young signaller who was on duty. A friendly chap who’d only been in post for 6 weeks, he filled me in on some of the work that’s happening between now and the new year. In Hammerton’s case little is changing other than the replacement of the life-expired crossing gates with new ones and the replacement of the electic token system and physical tokens with electronic ones. This old 10 lever Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company frame in its own little shed on the platform will remain controlling the station.

When I called in on Cattal, it was obvious there’s a much bigger job in hand. The loop at the station’s being extended to the West and the present set of points which have a 20 mph speed restriction on them are being replaced with a higher speed version the will raise linespeed to 40 mph. Here’s the sight that will disappear from this weekend as the new electronic system replaces the physical tokens that the signaller handed to the driver.

Here’s the view from Cattal level crossing showing where the loop will be extended.

16:55.

I’ve resisted the temptation to hang around and be a laggard on the way home so Leeds was my last stop. Seeing the station so deserted during the evening rush is quite something, but I’ve got the pictures I wanted and services on my line are still disrupted so I’ve caught the 16:42 from Leeds to Manchester Victoria which is being diverted via Brighouse, so it reverses at My home station of Halifax before resuming its route through the Calder Valley. It’s actually quite busy but I’m assuming that’s because some of my fellow passengers didn’t want to be stuck on a bus!

21:10.

Time to draw this rolling blog to a close now I’m safely tucked up at home and adding some of the pictures I took earlier. I hope you’ve enjoyed this little trip out as much as I have!

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

More depressing nonsense from the Green Party…

14 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by in Hs2, Railways, The Green Party

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Well, the Green Party of England and Wales anyway. The Scottish Green party is a separate entity and seems to be far more sensible and less dogmatic than the GPEW.

As someone who fits the profile of what looks like a natural Green party supporter and who’s voted for them in the past, I now find myself actively opposing them. Why? Because of their dogmatic and dishonest stance on railways and especially the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project. It was this stance that made me look deeper at GPEW policy several years ago. It led to a long blog where I dissected their policy and the outright misrepresentations it contained.

Sadly, nothing has changed since. If anything the Greens leadership has become even more hardline about HS2 – and even more dishonest. That’s often the problem when you get caught up in a lie. You either come clean and admit it or you double-down on it. The Greens have taken the latter course.

The truly sad thing is this lie completely undermines everything the Green Party is meant to stand for. Why? Well, the UK’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide nowadays is transport. The details can be found in this Government paper. As it points out –

As such, you’d expect the GPEW to have a laser-like focus on cutting transport Co2 emissions, wouldn’t you?

Exactly the opposite. Because, whilst the Greens have a mealy-mouthed policy of supporting UK High-Speed rail ‘in principle’, they vehemently oppose it in practice. In other words, they’re nothing more than hypocrites. But they don’t just stop at hypocrisy. Take a look at this Tweet from Caroline Russell. “Who she?” I hear you ask? Well, amongst other things, Russell is the GPEW Spokesperson on Transport.

As you can see from Russell’s list of roles and the fact she lives in North London, this is no rural Green Party Councillor living out in the sticks, who cycles to local meetings in-between knitting her own yoghurt. Russell is at the centre of things and has access to transport experts and a wealth of knowledge. So how can she come out with something as unutterably stupid as this tweet?

HS2 “shaves minutes” off ‘the’ journey between two major cities? Seriously? Has Russell ever bothered to look at a map of HS2? Because if she had, you’d expect her to have noticed that (from day 1) HS2 serves more than just two cities!
“Two cities”? Oh, please…

As for the “shaving minutes” nonsense, let’s have a look at a few sample times.

“Shaving” a few minutes? Hmm…

Not only does this point out that HS2 will serve 8 out of 10 of our largest cities, it looks beyond Russell’s obsession with London and Birmingham to highlight some rather spectacular journey time cuts. For example, Birmingham to Manchester is cut by 52% and Birmingham to Leeds is cut by a whopping 58%. Rail’s market share on both these routes is small because the existing journey times are slow and the trains are cramped Cross-Country ‘Voyagers’ of 4-5 cars. The services via Leeds also start/finish way beyond the core route and are often crowded before they reach either location.

Such journey time cuts are ideal to get people out of their cars and onto trains -as will be the new trains as they’ll be far superior to the product on offer now. Then there’s the massive increase in capacity HS2 adds to the existing rail network (for both passenger and freight services) that’s the real winner, because without it our rail network can’t cope with any shift from road/air to rail. Remember, before the pandemic, our existing rail network was creaking at the seams as it tried to cope with record numbers of passengers travelling on record numbers of trains running. It simply couldn’t cope with huge numbers of new passengers.

But surely? That’s what the Greens want, isn’t it? If we’re going to get people and freight off roads to cut transport Co2 emissions we need to provide the rail capacity to be able to do it?

Not according to the GPEW! According to Russell, some local electric buses and a few more local trains will do it! Quite how we’re meant to fit those local trains through choke-points like Birmingham News St, Leeds or Manchester Piccadilly is never explained – because the Greens don’t do explanations. Nor do they listen to the experts who point these things out.

Russell’s tweet begs the question, is (despite her being the Green’s Transport Spokesperson) she spectacularly ignorant and ill-informed, or – is this deliberate misinformation? But it’s not just Russell, you’ll hear this misinformation from many other ‘Green’ leaders too – like Bartley, Jones, and Bennett. It’s endemic and institutionalised.

It illustrates exactly why I won’t touch the Green party with a barge-pole, and I’m not alone. Their blind dogma and refusal to deal with the fact their policy on the railways and HS2 in particular is a dishonest mess that actually prevents them being credible (never mind actually tackling Climate Change) is maddening, but it’s so deeply ingrained in them I believe the GPEW is a write-off.

Sad to say, if you want genuine Green solutions to tackle climate-change. Don’t vote Green…

A 2001 trip down railway memory lane…

12 Thursday Nov 2020

Posted by in Down memory lane, Photography, Railways

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I’m just about to come to the end of scanning my old albums full of UK rail slides as I’ve less than 60 pictures left to go. By chance, the final album is from the years 2000-2001 (I went digital in 2004 but the other albums jumped the queue) and it’s been quite an eye-opener because whilst many of the pictures remained fresh in my mind, a couple were real surprises. The picture they paint is of a railway industry that was still in the early stages of privatisation, with many old train fleets still in service, but also new routes that were attempted but that never survived, either because they were developed purely as ORCATS* raids to poach fare revenue from other operators, or because the trains and the routes they were used on made little commercial sense in their own right. Here’s a couple of examples which I scanned earlier today.

Until I scanned this picture earlier I’d forgotten this service even existed! This is a West Yorkshire PTE liveried Class 158 at Glasgow Central on the 27th March 2001, prior to working the 14.10 to Leeds via the West Coast Main Line to Carlisle, then down the Settle and Carlisle. That’s a long way to go in a 2-car, 90mph diesel unit that wasn’t fitted out to Intercity standards! The service was introduced by the Arriva Trains North Franchise in September 1999 but only lasted a few years before the franchise was broken up. The long-distance routes were hived off into the Trans-Pennine Express franchise, but this one didn’t survive.

Here’s another one from the same year that didn’t last long either.

Thames Trains 165134 stands at Bristol Temple Meads before working the 12.30 to Oxford, which used the Didcot West Curve. Introduced in 1998 but withdrawn in 2003 at the request of the Strategic Rail Authority (90mph units on a 125mph main line weren’t a good use of capacity) these were the only time ‘Thames Turbo’s’ were seen in Bristol until recently. Thames Trains were merged with the Great Western franchise in 2004. Now these units are a common sight around Bristol as they were cascaded to the area following the electrification of the Great Western Main line between Paddington – Reading – Newbury.

Back in 2001 there was a lot of old stock eking out their twilight years a long way from the routes they’d been built for. Here’s another one from Scotland.

305519 stands at Edinburgh Waverley ready to work a service to North Berwick on the 26th March 2001. Built in 1959 at Doncaster works for the former Eastern region these units worked services out of London Liverpool St before many of them were displaced by the Class 315 units built in 1980 onwards. Several ended up being reduced to 3 -car sets working in the North-West operating service out of Manchester Piccadilly to Dinting whilst 5 4 -car sets were sent to Scotland to operate the line to North Berwick which was electrified in 1991. They survived in service until January 2002 when they were replaced with Class 322 ‘Stansted Express’ units which were also cascaded from services out of Liverpool St!

It wasn’t just regional services that were changing either. The Cross-Country network was about to see see a major shake-up as loco-hauled trains were going to be replaced by ‘Voyagers’…

Virgin Cross-Country’s 47844 hauls a service bound for the West Country past the site of Malago Vale carriage sidings in Bristol on the 1st April 2001. With the decline in loco-hauled Intercity fleets and demise of parcels trains many sidings like Malago Vale were redundant. Today the site is covered in houses.

Many old BR built locomotive fleets were in decline with hundreds stored around the country before being stripped for spares and sent for scrap. Sights like this one at London’s Old Oak Common depot were common.

On the 14th April 2001 the former ‘Coronation’ and Van sidings adjacent to Old Oak Common diesel depot are full of stored locomotives, electrification maintenance coaches and Freightliner container flats. From nearest the camera locomotives include. 47535. 33205. 47492. 73132. 73138. 73119. 73141. 73110. 73107. 73114 and several Class 31s.

As you can see from just this small selection, scanning these slides has been an interesting look back nearly 20 years, showing how much has changed in that time. Of course this isn’t the end of the story, I’ve still got albums of foreign railways to scan, including a large collection of Indian steam pictures. Then there’s all the travel shots going back decades – so expect plenty more trips down memory lane!

* Operational Research Computerised Allocation of Tickets to Services

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8th November picture of the day…

08 Sunday Nov 2020

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Politics, Railways, The USA, Travel

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Sunday already? Woo hoo!

I’m saying that because looking forward to the next week as by Friday Dawn and I come out of social-isolation and get to stare at and share more than four walls. Neither of us felt that it was likely we’d contracted Covid because of the contact Dawn had, but what we weren’t willing to do was put others at risk. It’s a sentiment that’s obviously been unfashionable in some circles, but all we can say is we’ve done our bit.

The feeling of isolation was doubled today by the fact the Calder Valley’s been covered in fog for the duration. Visibility’s been down to 2-3 hundred metres at best. So, the pair of us have been feeling like we’re living up in the clouds whilst keeping occupied pottering around in our gilded cage. Dee’s been busy being a domestic goddess whilst I’ve kept myself occupied blogging and eBaying…

Still, talking of ‘gilded cages’, has anyone seen any sense, contrition or humility (fat chance) coming from the Ex-President of the United States yet? No. Me neither. It looks like he’s going to spend his remaining days playing golf at taxpayers expense until he’s finally kicked out of the place. I mean, seriously – the man’s just lost the election and what’s he been doing since? Ignoring the result to spend the past two days on a golf course! Surely, even some of the people who voted for him might just be starting to think “well, this is a bit weird”, but maybe I’m being too charitable. Actually, after everything I’ve seem of Trump’s voters and staffers I’m sure I am.

Talking of Washington, here’s another picture of the day that I stumbled on whilst researching others. It rather fits the current theme of events. I took this at Chinatown station on the Washington metro on the 3rd April 2007.

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The changing railway background. Where have the gasometers gone?

07 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by in Down memory lane, History, Photography, Railways

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With Covid clipping my wings I’ve been spending a lot of the year scanning old railway slides going back 30 years. This process made me realise how something that was a landmark in the background at several locations (some quite famous) has gradually disappeared over the decades. Gasometers.

I grew up in Southport on the West Lancashire plain. With it being flat there were very few landmarks but one was a huge gasometer near my Grandmothers house where I spent much of my pre-school years in the early 1960s. She lived just down the road from something that used to be commonplace, the local town gasworks. Younger readers probably don’t know this but before natural gas was discovered in the North Sea towns and cities used to manufacture their own gas from coal. Many of these gasworks were near to railways which brought in their supplies of coal. Southport was a good example. It had a branch line that ran down the side of the street. Here’s an aerial picture of Southport gasworks taken in 1938 which is on the excellent ‘Britain from above’ website.

The railway to the gasworks runs along the street (Crowland St) on the right of the picture. My Grandmother’s house is just off the picture to the bottom left. Town gasworks were strange places to live near because of the smells that used to permeate the area as coal was cooked to release the gas. A by- product of the process was coke. I remember going with my dad to buy coke from the gasworks as it fuelled a boiler in our cellar which powered the central heating system he’d installed himself. I remember the sound of the gasworks whistle which signalled the lunch break and start/finish of work. The gasworks closed in 1964 but the gasometers remained and were joined by a much larger one which was built in 1969. 277 feet tall it dominated the skyline and could be seen for miles around (as you’ll see in later pictures). It was decommissioned in 2008 and it and its smaller neighbours were demolished soon after. Having lived so near to one of these monsters it’s probably no wonder that I’ve always noticed them in my pictures. So, here’s a selection of pictures where they feature, and the first one’s from – Southport!

On the 26th January 1997 Merseyrail liveried Class 150201 threads its way out of Southport Chapel St station through the dereliction of what was once a large railway complex. So much in this scene has now disappeared. The old excursion platform to the left and the railway yards beyond (which included the ‘Steamport’ railway museum) are now an industrial estate and supermarket, whilst on the horizon are the unmistakable shapes of the gasometers of the old gasworks.

Here’s another view of Southport taken 10 years later on the 4th October 2007 when the smaller gasometers had already disappeared.

Class 150218 heads for Meols Cop and is about to pass the site of St Lukes station which closed in 1968. The vans to the right are parked on the formation of the direct line via Blowick which closed in June 1965.

Here’s another example from the North-West, this time at St Helens..

On the 12th March 2001 142010 arrives at St Helens Central on the Wigan North Western – Liverpool Lime St service. Nowadays the former Down sidings behind the signalbox are a forest of Silver Birch trees.

Another example from the North-West, this time it’s Wigan.

87001 arrives at Wigan North Western from Euston in typically dull Wigan weather on the 5th April 1991. The gasworks was just the other side of the line running into Wigan Wallgate station. Now, both the gasometers and the MFI outlet are history.

Meanwhile, down South..

This is a view of the Easter approaches to Reading station taken on the 29th March 1991 with the skyline dominated by three different gasometers. Now, only the frame of the one on the right hand side of the picture remains, but that can no longer be seen as new office buildings block the view. Of course, now the Great Western Main Line has been electrified, so this view is a sea of masts, portals and overhead wires. I must get a comparison shot just to show the difference.

Further down the Great Western Main Line and a few years later..

Here’s Didcot station on the 19th February 2001, almost a decade on from the last picture and what’s on the skyline? Mind you, whichever direction you look in the skyline’s changed here! Behind me were the massive chimneys and cooling towers of the old power station which have also disappeared! Meanwhile electrification masts make this picture impossible now.

The Great Western main line seemed to be blessed with these monoliths as there was another at Southall in London.

Sadly, I never got a shot of the Southall monster in all its towering glory. but you can see it in the background of this 1995 shot of 60099 sat in Southall Down Yard.

Meanwhile, over in South London…

Here’s a real embarrassment of riches! On the 15th March 1996 456022 heads for London Victoria on a service from London Bridge. In the background is the massive gasometer at Battersea Park whilst on the right is the iconic Battersea power station.

The Battersea monster could be viewed from several stations. Here’s how it dominated Battersea Park station – as seen on the 24th June 2009…

Next to the beast of Battersea was one of the older gas holders which had the classic frame structure surrounding it. In this case it was decorated with the shield that forms the centerpiece of the City of London coat of arms.

On the 24th June 2009 a SET ‘Networker’ threads its way between the gasholders and Battersea Dogs home. Nowadays the site is covered in high-rise housing.

Od course, the classic example was over in North London, between St Pancras and Kings Cross stations.

On the 22nd October 2001 the gas holders at St Pancras were being dismantled to make way for the Eastern extension to St Pancras station which would eventually become the Kent high speed platforms.
Here’s how they’d looked a few months earlier. I took this picture on the 24th July 2001. Fortunately, they’ve been preserved and one has become the framework for a novel form of new housing.

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3rd November picture of the day…

03 Tuesday Nov 2020

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What with everything that’s been going on a events of the past couple of days last night wasn’t a vintage one for sleep. In fact, I ended up getting out of bed at 4am and retreating to the office – wide-awake – so as to make the most of the day and not disturb Dawn, or ‘Jet’, our moggie, who was curled up on the bed with us.

I crept around to make some coffee then settled down to a long bout of slide-scanning. I’ve neglected that project of late but I’m determined to get the railway pictures finished before our bout of ‘splendid’ isolation’ as at least then I can venture out during the plain vanilla lockdown that follows.

With a couple more bouts of insomnia I reckon I can have the job done within a couple of weeks tops – which will feel like an achievement after all this time! Of course that doesn’t mean the project’s finished – just what facet. I’ve still got thousands of travel pictures to scan. Mind you, looking at the Governments handling of the pandemic that may be done bad thing. At least it’ll give me something to do during any lockdown Mk3!

Right now it’s after eight o’ clock and they day’s started catching up with me. I’m not going to stay up and watch the US Presidential elections. I’d rather go to bed fearing the worst whilst hoping for the best with the possibility of waking up in the morning and finding that the populist political bubble’s finally burst. One can but hope…

Sadly, I can imagine things getting ugly and rancorous if it looks like Trump could lose, so I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the result’s contested if it’s close. Trump’s supported have already been framing that narrative and some of us will remember when the word ‘chad’ (either hanging or swinging) entered the political lexicon. I dearly hope I’m wrong and that Americans have had enough of the Tango’d Tw*t, but with the weapons-grade levels of social and other media manipulation I really don’t know.

Meanwhile, here’s the picture of the day, which is from the batch of slides I’ve spent the day scanning. This scene is unrecognisable today. I took this picture at Reading station on the 9th February 2001. All you see in the picture’s disappeared. In the past decade Reading station has had a £1bn rebuild and upgrade, whilst some (but not all) of the routes have been electrified. The old HST’s like this have disappeared although this particular power car has found a new lease of life working for Scotrail North of the border.

You can almost hear the power car scream as this old Valenta engined HST accelerates away from a stop at Reading on its way to London. The low sun backlight the trains ‘flying fag packet’ livery as this particular version of the company colours were known as.

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2nd November (obituary) picture of the day…

02 Monday Nov 2020

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Ever had one of those days where you get to the stage of saying “right 2020, you can just f*****g do one now”? I’ve finally reached that stage.

I knew today was going to be a struggle but I did my best to remain positive. Looking at the the heavy rain battering the bedroom window and listening to the high winds whipping the leaves off the trees I tried to put a positive spin and brave face on the pair of us self-isolating by saying “well, with weather like this, who really minds being stuck indoors?” After all, I had plenty to do and the day’s not been unproductive. I’ve managed to declutter the office, get some writing done and restart scanning old slides – with the intention of having the final batch of UK rail pictures done in the next couple of weeks. There’s only one problem. I don’t have any options as my freedoms have been eroded by Covid. And I do mean Covid, I’m not blaming the shambolic response to it from our kakistocratic Government (easy as it would be) because other countries citizens are in the same boat. We just happen to have a bunch in power who’re adding insult to injury. It’s the pandemic that’s the root of so many problems.

So, there was me plodding along, thinking ‘ho hum’ when I received the news of the death of an old and valued friend. Not from Covid, but from cancer. Major John Poyntz, formerly of Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate has passed away. In the next few days I’ll write more about John, right now I’m too upset to go into details. I first met John around 15 years ago and he and I and a small group of valued friends had many an adventure in Germany and the UK. You often hear the expression ‘they don’t make ’em like that anymore’ but in John’s case this is absolutely true – because of the times John lived through and the things he experienced through his military service in Malaya (as it was then) and later in West Germany during the cold war. He was a wealth of stories, has a wicked sense of humour, was always very dapper and – God – could he drink!

So, today’s picture of the day is in memory of John. I took it on the Harz railway in Germany on the 10th February 2007 and for me, it encapsulates who John was and why we both loved and respected him. Here he is at the train window, balancing a class of Glühwein on his notebooks as we trundle through the winter snow.

Rest easy Major.

Circumstances may rob us of our chance to pay our last respects to you for now, but be assured that, when the time is right, we’ll get together to raise several glasses in your memory and tell a few tales…

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Thank you!